Wednesday, September 30, 2009

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.
Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.
"I was freaked out. I was blown away," she said. "I got on the phone immediately, called my husband, then I called all the girls" — that is, the mothers whose kids she watches — "every one of them."
Snyder's predicament has led to a debate in Michigan about whether a law that says no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers needs to be changed. It also has irked parents who say they depend on such friendly offers to help them balance work and family.

It's all really stupid. Women are expected to be good mothers, and provide for the family. In most families, both spouses must work in order to pay the bills and still have money for food. That doesn't leave a whole lot left over for childcare, and often the help of friends and neighbors is crucial to families. This help (that has no monetary gain) should not require a fucking license.

Let's all think of this story the next time some anti-choicer wants to force women to have children, and not help with maternity and childcare once that child is born. Fuck. I'm pissed.

4
comments:

Anonymous
said...

In the UK, parents who give kids lifts to school and after school activities are going to be required to have an "enhanced disclosure" check by the Criminal Records Bureau, before they're legally allowed to do it.

I'm so tired of laws that punish people for running businesses that they're clearly not even running in the first place. In my area, it's illegal to carpool or have a road trip if the passengers chip in for gas, because then you're running an unlicensed taxi service.

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About Me

I'm a writer still trying to figure out what I'm doing, so I'm trying to do a lot of different things.
I'm a daydreamer who hates being social. I'm afraid I fit the stereotype of angry, loner writer who enjoys sitting in the dark writing about things that piss me off. Yes, I enjoy drinking, but no I do not smoke.